Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Chapter 9

"An Echo stone," Panda said, looking over Stephanie to see the little blue gem.

"What's that?" Stephanie asked.

"It's a magic stone that people must stay next to for three days and nights at which point an imprint of themselves at that moment in time, with all their knowledge, is created within the stone," Panda explained. "They're very rare and incredibly expensive to get. Whoever did this probably knows what we need, or where to get it."

Crow nodded. "Exactly."

"How does it work though?" She asked him, pulling his arm down to inspect it closer. It was incredibly smooth, and she didn't see any colour change in it. It was a constant, pretty blue.

"No idea," Crow muttered and gently reached out and poked it with his fingertip. It began to glow softly. "I'm a genius."

"You poked it," she frowned.

"Still a genius." She sighed.

A moment went by and then an old man faded up from nothing besides them. Stephanie took a step back into Panda and he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't be alarmed," the old man said kindly. "I'm not going to hurt you, young lady. I am here to answer your questions and provide whatever information you need, so long as I - my, oh my," he said, facing Crow. "You're a skeleton."

"I am."

"As I live and breathe… figuratively speaking, of course, as I do neither. But a skeleton, and a talking one at that."

"Excuse me," Panda said, drawing the man's attention away from Crow. "But I understand Echo stones have very little power in them and we have a lot of information we need from you."

He nodded. "Of course. I apologise, I get swept up in my own curiosity sometimes. May I ask though, what language am I speaking?"

"English," Stephanie frowned.

"Oh!" He said and looked as if he were going to ramble on when Panda cleared his throat. "Of course, I apologise again. Quick, ask me something before I get distracted."

"You're an expert on the Ancients?" Crow asked.

"I am. I'm the one tasked with documenting their existence. It's a great honour you know – I got to meet some of their descendants. Three young ladies, not much older than you, my dear, and they were sweet indeed. Weren't too interested in the Ancients though, more so in the Great Magician's great-grandson, but they were young I suppose."

"Yes, well, Stephanie isn't allowed near boys," Panda muttered, not so much as grunting when she elbowed him. "Is there a way of defending against the Sceptre?"

"No," he said. "Nothing in existence has ever blocked the Sceptre, even the Faceless were destroyed by it. That was its purpose after all. To destroy anything and everything in its path. If there were any type of defence, it would have failed its purpose. It is a perfect object, and so nothing can stop it."

"We suspected as much," Crow said. "What about destroying it?"

"Also impossible. It would be a way of stopping its purpose of destroying. It cannot destroy if it does not exist," he said, looking a little bewildered. "Why on earth would you need to know that? Do you want to destroy such an incredible piece of history?"

"Better than it destroy all of us," Stephanie pointed out. "What about its power source?"

He took a deep, fake breath. "A single crystal, black, embedded in its hilt, capable of channelling the energy that's poured into it."

"So can the crystal be destroyed?" Panda asked.

"I've thought about it at great detail actually. You see, there is many texts suggesting that it cannot be touched. If you touch the stone, it kills you, unless of course you are an Ancient or a descendant of them. I tried asking those young ladies about it but by this point the Sceptre was nowhere to be found and they had never been in contact with those stones. Then again, if it's true, they might not have even know, as it would have done nothing to them and they'd of had no reason to take notice of it. I have read one translation of a text that suggested it is possible for the crystal to destroy itself from within."

"How?" Stephanie asked.

"I er… I don't really know."

Panda sighed softly. "Tell us more about the black crystal. Do you know where they can be found? Or if those three descendants had children?"

"I don't know much of anything about the crystal. It was not written about much, I expect because the Ancients didn't want others knowing about their power source."

"Makes sense if it is possible to destroy," Stephanie pointed out. "If it needs replacing they don't want others to get in the way."

Crow nodded. "That's true."

"Yes, and I don't know what happened to those girls. I know one of them married the Great Magicians great-grandson, but I don't know if any of them had children. This Echo stone was created shortly after their wedding announcement."

"What was the great-grandsons name?" Crow asked.

"I cannot remember anymore," he admitted. "I can't recall if I was ever told."

"Do you know if the crystal was created or natural?" Crow continued.

"If you'll allow me to quote from the text that I discovered: 'The Faceless Ones created the crystals and the crystal sang to the Faceless Ones when an enemy neared. But when the Ancients approached the crystal was silent, and it did not sing to the Faceless Ones, and the Faceless Ones did not know it was taken.'"

"So there is a blind spot," Stephanie said.

"It looks that way," he said, nodding. His image grew faint and he held up a hand to see through it. "This is sort of unnerving."

"Is there any other way you can think of that could direct us to destroying it?" Crow asked quickly.

He shook his head. "The best thing to do is hide it and never tell anyone. Failing that, sink it in the ocean so they cannot get to it. Well, the best thing would be world peace. Failing that, there are references to other weapons of God killing levels that might–"

He flickered and went out before he could finish the sentence.

"We didn't learn his name," Stephanie said. "Is that bad?"

"No," Crow told her. "We got the information we needed, just as the Echo stone was intended. We need to get back together to think. But first I want to go to China's library and look over her books for any reference to that black crystal."

"And those other weapons. If they are on the same level as the Sceptre, there might be some reference to destroying them we could try," Stephanie said.

"True." Crow got his phone out and texted someone quickly before they left The Vault. They were lead out of the gallery just as two new guards, a man and woman, came in. They had serious looks on their faces and Stephanie tried not to stare – they were vampires after all.

When they got in the car, they all seemed to breathe a little easier. They took their time going through traffic to China's place on the other side of town. She'd never realised how pretty the city was with all its lights.

They arrived in China's library at around six-thirty and Stephanie could feel her stomach grumbling. Panda went to talk to China and see if she had anything they could look at as her family had once known a lot about the Faceless Ones, she'd been told, and Crow went straight for the books. With no idea of where she was after only thirty seconds of looking, she just wandered around for fun, and so she didn't look stupid. She hoped she'd find something on beginner's magic.

She was trying to work out the ordering system – they weren't ordered by alphabet, by author or even by topic – when she heard someone come up behind her.

She turned and saw a young, pretty woman with gently curled hair and hard eyes, wearing a tunic that showed off her strong arms, tight trousers and Stephanie wasn't sure if she had bothered with anything else.

"You look lost," she said, smiling. She had an English accent.

"Not really," Stephanie said as the lady put her book back. "If I shout I'll be found pretty quick after all."

She laughed lowly as to not disturb anyone. "I take it you're with someone then. My name's Tanith Low."

She hesitated, really wanting to make a friend of the pretty woman. "I don't have one yet. I guess I'll have to see you again and tell you."

Her smile grew to a grin. "I suppose we could do that. If you go two rows over you might find something you want. You're looking to learn magic right?"

Stephanie nodded.

"Yeah, two rows that way."

"Thanks," she said quickly, walking away before she could blush. It wasn't her fault the damn woman was so pretty!

She found a book where Tanith said and looked for Elemental magic as Wolf had told her it was the best for beginners, though she expected he wanted to teach her a little Adept as well for his own amusement. She read a chapter, got too distracted with her hungry stomach, and laid open the book to try and began trying to lift a page. She focused, opened her hand slowly and then snapped open her palm, just like she had seen Crow do.

Nothing happened.

She made a fist and tried again. The page stayed still. It continued to do that for at least another fifty tries.

"How's it going?" She looked up to see Tanith and gave her a weak smile.

"I'm too hungry for this," she said, making a face. "Everyone makes it look so easy."

She snorted lightly and pulled up a chair to sit across from her. "It takes time and patience."

"I don't exactly have a lot of time," she said bitterly. "And I've never had much patience."

Tanith shrugged. "There's always the possibility you can't do magic. It's one thing to know about it, quite another to be able to do it."

"I suppose," Stephanie said. "But I really would prefer to be able to do it. I've waited a long time for this. Years."

"Some bruise you've got there," Tanith said after a moment.

Stephanie looked at her forearm and quickly pulled her sleeve down. "Don't tell the others."

Tanith frowned. "Why?"

She hesitated. "I don't want them to worry."

Tanith dug into her pocket and pulled out a porous yellow rock. "Here. Break a little off, run it under water. Sit in there a few minutes and the bruises will be gone."

Stephanie smiled and felt her cheeks getting warm when she looked at Tanith's face too long. "Thanks."

She shrugged. "I don't want to scare you, but this mightn't be the best time for someone to start learning magic. Bad things are happening."

Stephanie decided to stay quiet about what she knew. She didn't really know Tanith, no matter how much she wanted to have a female friend. She didn't even know what side Tanith was on. "Thank you for the rock," she said instead.

"Not a problem," Tanith said. "Us warriors have to look out for one another."

Crow, China and Panda came around the corner then and Stephanie stood. "Thanks again. I hope I get to see you soon," she said quietly, and walked to the others.

Panda was looking at Tanith with a closed expression but didn't mention anything to Stephanie, just put his hand on one of her shoulders with a fond look and they made their way from the library.

"So," China said, "do you have a name yet, girl?"

"Not yet," she said. "But I have a few ideas."

Two in one day for ma birthday! :)